Close Your Pool Properly To Prevent Winter Stains
Closing your pool for winter is important for both chlorine and Salt PCT Drugs Water pools. If it is not done properly, your pool and equipment will suffer on both levels. You dont want your pool to develop unhealthy stains!
One of the first things you should know about closing your salt water pool is the way your salt water generator works. During the summer months, your generator works efficiently because of the warm water, but the system will become affected when the water cools during fall and winter. It may even indicate your pool is low on salt when it is not.
Should I Add Salt To My Pool In Winter
If you have to winterize your salt water pool at the end of summer, there are a series of things that need to be done to ensure its done properly. Depending on your preference and how harsh your winters, you might add chemicals to the water at closing such as chlorine or shock and perhaps an algaecide.
One question people often ask is whether or not they should add more salt to the pool shortly before closing to keep the salt levels at a good level over winter.
When your pool is closed for winter there is no benefit by adding salt to the water. Chlorine is only produced when dissolved salt is pumped through the chlorinator cell with the chlorinator running so adding salt to a pool that isnt operational serves no purpose and may lead to staining of the pool.
Lets take a closer look at when to add salt to your pool and when you should avoid doing so.
Test & Balance Your Pool’s Chemical Levels
Once you know how many gallons of your pool holds it’s time to test your water. The amount of water in your pool will help determine how much of each chemical you’ll need to add after you’ve tested the water for it to be properly balanced.
Here’s what you’ll need to test for and their ideal range:
- Alkalinity
- Metals
- Salt
Your water needs to be completely balanced with all the ideal levels before turning the salt chlorinator on. Read more on testing your water here. An existing pool converting to chlorine will have a salt presence already. you’ll want to know your starting salt level after all the rest of your chemicals are balanced so you know how much salt to add in the next step.
If pool maintenance seems confusing or just isn’t your thing, now is also a good time to add E-Z Pool to your backyard living style. The combination of these two products takes out the need for adding a bunch of different chemicals to your pool to balance out your levels.
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What Chemicals To Add
Occasionally, you may need to add certain chemicals to maintain the composition and integrity of various pool elements. For instance, although the pool has a chlorine generator, we recommend keeping a supply of granular chlorine. This will come in handy if the pump malfunctions.
Other than that, to maintain the perfect balance of chemicals, you can use pH reducers. Unlike chlorine-tablet pools, the pH level of saltwater pools goes on increasing, making it necessary to add a stabiliser. It would be best if you kept the pH level at 7.6 and the alkalinity at 70-80ppm.
Know When To Replace The Salt Cell
In some ways, a salt cell is analogous to a car tire its a consumable part that slowly wears out as it works. Accordingly, theres not really any benefit from replacing your SCGs cell early. Getting the longest life out of your cell means getting the most return on your investment.
When a cell is depleted, the SCGs controller typically displays an error message or warning light as mentioned previously, such errors can sometimes be displayed due to other related issues. These are seven troubleshooting checks you should perform before replacing your cell in order to eliminate the possibility of other minor fixable issues being the cause. Unlike a car tire, you cannot visually see when a salt cell is worn out so dont even try. Use these tried and true methods instead:
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If your model has different cell type settings on the SCGs electronic controller, ensure that this setting has not inadvertently been changed. Youll need to refer to the manufacturers documentation to do this, but its a final item to check which can cause a false error.
- Check how old your cell is. How many summers has it been since this cell was put into operation? Is it nearly as old or older than the length of its warranty period?
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What Happens When You Put Too Much Salt In A Pool
The only way to lower the salt level in your pool when its too high is to:
- Drain some water and then refill it with clean unsalted water ie. water from your garden hose.
- Wait for the salt level to naturally go down through splashing, filter backwashing, etc.
- Wait for a heavy rainfall to dilute the pool water.
If your salt level is slightly above the desired range of 3,400 ppm and your chlorinator isnt giving you a high salt warning, you might choose to do nothing and wait it out because salt level does drop over time with regular pool usage and as evaporated pool water is replaced.
Why Salt Level Matters
Many people dont realize that saltwater pools still use chlorine in their water, but how the chlorine is added to the pool is where things differ.
Salt is first added to the water, and a salt chlorine generator , uses electrolysis to split the salt molecules, turning them into chlorine.
Too little and your salt generator wont be able to make enough chlorine, which means your pool wont be clean enough to swim in. Too much and you end up with salty tasting water, not to mention it can potentially corrode metallic surfaces.
The ideal level for salt in a saltwater pool is 3200 ppm, but between 2700 and 3400 ppm is also acceptable.
Pro tip: Only use sodium chloride that has a purity of 99% or higher. Any other salt will not only make the chlorine less effective, but you run the risk of discoloring your pool finish, surfaces, and fittings of your pool.
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How To Add Salt To Your Pool
If youre a new salt water pool owner, you might wonder how and where you actually add salt to the water?
And how often do you add salt for that matter?
Actually, knowing what type of salt is rather important too. There are plenty of types of salt so which one do salt water pool owners need?
Lets look at the answer to each of those questions regarding salt water pool ownership and how salt gets added.
Minimize Your Chlorine Demand
You wouldn’t be ok with trying to have your home’s HVAC unit try to compensate for windows and doors that were left open all the time, right? It’s the same with your pool’s sanitation. It is crucial to eliminate issues that can multiply the amount of chlorine it takes to keep clean water . The most high-impact levels to monitor are phosphates , nitrates , and stabilizer . When any of these three are at issue, it’s possible for a pool to require many times higher amounts of chlorine in order to maintain the extra 1-3ppm residual level of unused free chlorine that you need.
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How To Dilute Your Saltwater Pool
For the times where youve made a calculation error and the pool has too much salt, there is only one way to reduce it through dilution.
Diluting pool water is a bit of a pain, but you should only ever do partial draining of the pool. If you take out too much water, you run the risk of having the pool pop up out of the ground.
Heres how to do it:
How To Add Salt To Your Saltwater Pool
Adding salt to a swimming pool is pretty much as easy as it sounds, but there are a few nuances to be aware of.
Heres how to do it:
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Pool Water Circulation Hack
Most above ground pools do not have a main drain and are limited to only the thru-wall skimmer. In order to have the benefit of the water leaving the pool through the floor, here is a good trick:
Plug in you vacuum hose to the skimmer and leave a vacuum head on the floor of the pool UPSIDE DOWN.
Vacuuming your vinyl lined pool is a breeze with this specially designed vinyl liner vacuum head. Precisely weighted for effortless use, it leaves no trail at the pool bottom like other vacuum heads.
Now when you start the filter, all the water is being pulled from the bottom of the pool. This will also help speed up the process of dissolving the salt.
This also works well when you have cloudy water that settles at the bottom of the pool. Give it a try!
If the salt generator system has a built in salt level display, the salt needs to be fully diluted in order to give a proper reading. Be sure to wait at least 24-48 hours after adding salt to rely on the display.
How Do You Test Your Salt Levels
Its pretty simple. Your salt chlorine generator should give you a reading for how much salt is currently in your pool. However, if you dont have that reading, you can use a salt testing kit to get an accurate measurement. Once youve done that, youll know if youre above or below the ideal salt range that I mentioned above. If youre above it, youll need to replace your current pool water with new water. If youre below it, you add more salt.
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Using A Swimming Pool Salt Chart
Once you calculate how many gallons of water is in your pool and determine your current salt levels, you can finally figure how much salt to add.
Below is the swimming pool salt chart. On the left-hand side, are the current salt levels while the pool sizes are along the top. You can determine how much salt to add by taking your fingers, one for current salt level and one for pool size, and moving it across the table until they touch or intersect.
Example: Based on this salt chart, if your pool has 18,000 gallons and the current salt level is 1600 ppm, you need to add 240 ppm of salt to reach 3200 ppm.
How Much Salt To Add To A Pool
It’s pretty obvious that to create a saltwater pool, you need to have salt. And lots of it. Keep in mind that standard pools need to have a value of 2400-3200ppm to reach the minimum salt level. To achieve this, you’ll have to add 90kg of pool-grade salt to 38,000 litres of water.
However, if you’re worried about salt loss due to backwash or splash out, it’s better to use annual boosters to replace the salt and maintain quality. But the most critical aspect is adding the appropriate amount of salt in the correct manner, for which a chlorine generator is vital.
A chlorine generator is pretty easy to install. This is because saltwater pools have an inground salt system, thanks to a control box that derives power from an electric outlet. Next, an inline salt cell connects to the return line, and all you need to do is input the amount of chlorine needed. As a result, it will become convenient to manage output.
The pool has indicators for water flow, temperature and salt level for all-round coverage. Once you switch on the chlorine generator, the control box reads the temperature in the pool. If it’s more than 16 degrees Celcius and the pool has sufficient water flow, a low voltage is supplied to the salt cell, helping to produce chlorine.
You should know that the level of chlorine is controlled automatically for the best results. But wed advise you to manually check the chlorine concentration from time to time for making the necessary adjustments.
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If The Level Is Low Determine The Number Of Gallons In The Pool And Add Salt According To The Chart Below
How much salt to add to my pool calculator. How much salt do i add to a salt water pool? Use the calculator below to calculate the salinity of your pool. All you need to do is plug in your pool volume and your current salt levels and hit calculate..
Pool 9 pool cleaning supplies you absolutely need. You should always exercise caution when adding salt directly to an aquarium: Pool volume if pool size = 10m long x 4m wide x average depth of 1.5m, volume = 10 x 4 x 1.5 = 60m³.
The amount of pool pro salt needed for your salt chlorinator to produce sufficient chlorine varies, depending on the type of chlorinator. Residential pool pump energy savings calculator Set the current salt level slider to match your pools current salinity reading.
Heres how to do it: How much does a 12×24 inground pool cost. Like i mentioned above, you either add baking soda or muriatic acid to raise or lower your pools total alkalinity level.
You can determine how much salt to add by taking your fingers, one for current salt level and one for pool size, and moving it across the table until they touch or intersect. This calculator estimates the weight and volume of salt required to increase salinity to a target level. Adding salt to a swimming pool is pretty much as easy as it sounds, but there are a few nuances to be aware of.
How to add salt to your saltwater pool. Calculate what chemicals to add. Pool calculator and other related tools.
How much salt do you add?
Pool Salt Calculator
Swimming Pool Salt Calculator
Adding salt to your swimming pool is fairly straight-forward. However, calculating how much salt to add can complicate things. What you need is a swimming pool salt calculator.
Usually, there are two reasons why you would need to add salt to your pool. Either your salt chlorine generator alerted you that your pool was low in salt or you recently drained your pool, for whatever reason. Whether youre adding salt to your swimming pool or diluting it, knowing how much salt to add back into the water is crucial to balancing your pool.
Lets take a look at how pool owners can determine when their salt is low and how they can calculate how much salt to add.
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Whats The Right Level Of Salt For Your Pool
The optimal range for salt in your pool is 2,700-3,400 ppm , with 3,200 ppm being ideal.
Whats parts per million mean? Its just a scientific unit of measurement, but dont worry, you dont need to know the ins and outs of ppm. The only thing you need to do is test your pool water to get a reading of the current salt ppm levels.
